Writing instrument with retractable and yieldable point



' Sept. 14; W65" B. H. LAMMERS WRITING INSTRUMENT WITH RETRACTABLE ANDYIELDABLE POINT Filed May 15, 1963 INVENTOR I BERNARD HZ. A MM EH5ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,205,865 WRITING INSTRUMENT WITHRETRACTABLE AND YIELDABLE POINT Bernard H. Larnmers, 1447 Oakview Drive,McLean, Va. Filed May 13, 1963, Ser. No. 279,739 1 Claim. (Cl. 12042.03)

This invention rel-ates to a ball point-type writing instrument whereinthe ball point is held in a retracted sheathed position when not in useand is yieldably supported in a projected position for use, whereby theball point or scribing element will float or glide over a piece of paperwith which it is in writing contact.

A primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved ballpoint-type writing instrument wherein a substantially uniform pressurewill be maintained constantly on the ball point while it is in writingcontact with a piece of paper, so that a more uniform amount of ink willbe dispensed from the writing ball to eliminate the fading as frequentlyresults where too much pressure is applied in writing with a ball pointpen.

A further object of the invention is to provide a pen which will writemore smoothly due to the tendency of the point to glide over the paperresulting from the ability of the point to yield relative to the barrelin which it is supported, so that a floating action will result whichwill enable the pen to be operated with less effort.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a pen which willuse less ink while insuring a uniform dispensing of the ink, therebyresulting in less frequent replacement of the ink reservoir orcartridge, than with conventional retractable ball point pens whereinthe point is rigidly held in a projected, writing position.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafterbecome more fully apparent from the following description of thedrawing, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, andwherein:

FIGURE 1 is a longitudinal sectional view, partly in elevation andpartly broken away, illustrating the improved writing instrument withthe writing point thereof in a retracted position;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 but showing the Writing pointyieldably held in a projected position;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary detailed view, partly in elevation, partlybroken away and partly in section, of a portion of the writinginstrument, and

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken substantially, alonga plane as indicated by the line 44 of FIGURE 1.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, the writing 0 instrument inits entirety is designated generally 6 and includes a barrel 7 composedof a forward section 8 and a rear section 9, which sections arethreadedly connected at their adjacent ends in a conventional manner, asseen at 10.

A conventional writing unit, designated generally 11, is slidablymounted in the barrel 7 and includes a cartridge or reservoir 12constituting the rear portion of the unit 11 and a ball point 13constituting the forward end of said writing unit 11. A plug 14 ismounted in the rear end of the cartridge 12 and has a vent port 15 eX-tending longitudinally therethrough and through a restricted stemportion 16 thereof which projects rearwardly from the cartridge 12.

A coil spring 17 is disposed in the forward barrel section 8 around atubular forward portion 18 of the writing unit 11 and has a forward endwhich seats against a rearwardly facing annular shoulder 19 of thehollow interior of the barrel section 8, and a rear end which abuts anannular forwardly facing shoulder 20 which surrounds the rear end of thetubular portion 18.

A conventional latch unit, designated generally 21, is

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mounted in the rear barrel section 9 and includes a sleeve 22 containinga latch member 23 which is mounted for reciprocating and oscillatingmovement in said sleeve, and a plunger 24 which projects outwardly fromthe rear end 25 of the barrel section 9 and which has a restrictedforwardly extending neck 26 which extends into the sleeve 22.- The latchunit 21 is of a conventional construction and is fully disclosed in US.Patent No. 3,007,- 444, issued November 7, 1961, and as said latchmechanism constitutes no part of the present invention, it has not beenfully illustrated in the drawing and will not be described in detail.

A thrust transmitting means, designated generally 27, includes a coilspring 28 and a rigid element 29. Said thrust transmitting means isinterposed between the rear end of the writing unit 11 and the latchelement 23. The forward end of the spring 28 abuts against the plug 14and engages around the stem 16, and the rear end of the spring 28 abutsagainst the forwardly facing annular shoulder 30 of the element 29 andengages around a restricted forward end 31 of said element 29. Theelement 29 has a restricted rear end or stem 32 which extends into theforward end of the sleeve 22 and abuts against the forward end of thelatch element 23. The rear end of the spring 28 may fit loosely aroundthe forward end 31 of the element 29 or the end convolution thereof maybe secured thereto, and the forward end of said spring may engageloosely around or may be secured to the stem 16.

The writing instrument 6 may contain an ornamental sleeve 33 surroundinga portion of the exterior of the upper barrel section 9 and which isrecessed to receive said sleeve, and against which a conventional pocketclip 34 of the writing instrument 6 engages.

FIGURE 1 shows the writing instrument 6 with the parts disposed when theinstrument is not in use and is to be carried, for example, in a garmentpocket. As seen in FIGURE 1, the latch 23 is in a released and retractedposition and the plunger 24 is in a retracted rearmost positionprojecting a substantial distance rearwardly from the rear end 25 of thebarrel. The forward compression spring 17 is extended and under arelatively slight compression for holding the writing unit 11 and thethrust transmitting means 27 in retracted positions. With the parts thusdisposed, the ball point 13 is disposed in a restricted bore portion 35of the barrel section 8 and which opens outwardly of the tapered forwardend or 'nose 36 of said barrel section, and the spring 28 is relaxed andfully extended. With the part-s thus disposed, the rear end of the stem32 extends into the sleeve 22 beyond a shoulder 37 which defines therear end of a forwardly opening notch 38 of the sleeve 22, and so thatsaid rear end of the stem 32 bears against the forward end of theretracted latch 23. FIGURE 2 shows the writing instrument with thewriting unti 11 in a projected position. Movement of the Writing unit 11from its position of FIGURE 1 to its position of FIGURE 2 isaccomplished by exerting a forward pressure on the rear end of theplunger 24 for displacing said plunger forwardly from its position ofFIGURE 1 to its position of FIGURE 2. The latch element 23 is displacedforwardly with the plunger 24 for moving the element 29 of the thrusttransmitting means 27 forwardly in unison with said latch element andfrom its position of FIGURE 1 to its posi tion of FIGURE 2. The forwardend of the latch element 23 has a lateral projection 39. When theprojection 39 moves into registry with the notch 38, the latch elementis caused to rock in the sleeve 22 so that the projection 39 swings intothe notch 38. When the forward pressure is released on the plunger 24the springs 17 and 28 cause a rearwardly facing shoulder 40 of theprojection 39 to abut against the forwardly facing end or at shoulder 37of the notch 38 for thereby latching the assembly 21 in its projectedposition of FIGURE 2 to hold the writing unit 11 in its projectedwriting position of said figure.

As the rigid element 29 is projected forwardly with the latch element 23from its retracted position of FIGURE 1 toward its projected position ofFIGURE 2, the rear spring 28 is compressed. The spring 28 is strongerthan the spring 17 so that after an initial partial loading of thespring 28, the writing unit 11 will be projected forwardly and 'When thelatch element 23 and the rigid element 29 have reached their forwardmostposition of FIGURE 2, the writing unit 11 will be in its fully projectedposition of FIGURE 2 with the ball point 13 thereof disposed beyond andspaced from the forward end or nose 36 of the barrel 7. In this positionof the parts, the springs 28 and 17 will be compressed or loaded;however, the spring 28 is stronger than the spring 17 to normallymaintain the ball point 13 in its position of FIGURE 2 and with thespring 17 tending to bias the writing unit 11 rearwardly and back to itsposition of FIGURE 1.

In writing with the instrument 6 pressure is applied to the ball point13 through the barrel 7, latch assembly 21, thrust transmitting means 27and the remainder of the writing unit 11. Accordingly, the spring 28permits the writing unit 11 including the ball point l3ito yieldrearwardly while the instrument 6 is in use so that the ball point 13will yield from its position of FIGURE 2 part way to the barrel nose 36,and will have a floating action back and forth between its position ofFIGURE 2 and the nose 36 so that it will glide smoothly over a writingsurface, not shown, and with a substantially uniform pressure beingexerted on said surface so that an even flow and an even distribution ofink onto the writing surface will result. In addition, this gliding orfloating action of the point 13 will produce an effortless writingaction on the part of the user of the instrument 6.

The shoulder 40 is disengaged from the shoulder 37 in a conventionalmanner by pressure again being exerted on the rear end of the plunger 24in a forward direction, so that when the plunger 24 is thereafterreleased the loaded but weaker spring 17 may displace the writing unit11, thrust transmitting means 27, latch element 23 and plunger 24 backto their retracted positions of FIGURE 1. Actually, when the assembly 21is unlatched the spring 28 will initially move the latch assembly partsand the element 29 substantially back to their positions of FIGURE 1,during which movement the spring 28 will be unloaded, and thereafter thespring 17 can move the writing unit 11 rearwardly to its retractedposition.

It will be understood that the yieldable thrust transmitting means 27could include only the spring 28 which could be made longer so that itsrear end would engage directly with the latch element 23. It will alsobe understood that the yieldable thrust transmitting means could beutilized with other types of retractable ball point writing instrumentshaving different latch assemblies from the latch assembly 21, which isonly intended to illustrate a conventional lat-ch assembly for holdingthe writing unit in a projected position and which may be released sothat the writing unit can be moved rearwardly to a retracted position bya spring such as the spring 17.

Various other modifications and changes are contemplated and mayobviously be resorted to, without departing from the function or scopeof the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claim.

I claim as my invention:

A writing instrument including a barrel, a writing unit reciprocablymounted in said barrel having a ball point defining a forward endthereof, a latch assembly supported in the rear part of said barrel, aspring contained in a forward part of the barrel and bearing against aforwardly facing part of the writing unit for urging said writing unitrearwardly toward the latch assembly and to a retracted position, and ayieldable thrust transmitting means disposed in said barrel and having'aforward end engaging a rear end of the writing unit and a rear endengaging a part of said latch assembly, said thrust transmitting meansbeing longitudinally compressed by manipulation and movement of saidpart of the latch assembly forwardly to a projected position-for biasingthe'writ-ing unit forwardly of the barrel against the action of saidspring to yieldably support the ball point in a projected positionbeyond the forward end of the barrel and to retain said part of thelatch assembly latched in a projected position, said thrust transmittingmeans including a compression spring constituting a forward portionthereof and a rigid element constituting the rear portion thereof, saidcompression spring being of a strength greater than the strength of saidfirst mentioned spring, and the over-all length of said thrusttransmitting means being such as to occupy the space in the barrelbetween said part of the latch assembly and the rear end of the writingunit with the spring thereof substantially unloaded when the writingunit is held in a retracted position by said first mentioned spring forretaining said part of the latch assembly in a released position.

References Cited by the Examiner,

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,946,311 7/60 Craig -42.03 3,007,444 11/61Lockwood 120-4203 FOREIGN PATENTS 875,820 8/61 Great Britain.

EUGENE R; CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

LAWRENCE CHARLES, JEROME SCHNALL,

Examiners.

